Aster attends a school for gifted kids, but she doesn't think she's special at all. If she was, her mother wouldn't have left. And if she isn't careful, everyone else will leave her too.

Worse Things is a story about connections, the ways they are made, and what happens when they are lost or illusive, from the award-winning author of Pearl Verses the World and Toppling.

In 1939, 14-year-old Tom lives in Hay where his family runs the local bakery. Max Gruber is nearly 13. He is sent to his Uncle Ferdy in London, but is then interred and shipped to Australia aboard the Dunera. He arrives in Hay and...